Fish Kill in Taal Lake

There’s no green (literally) on my Green Monday entry this week but this is a perfect post for living green. I just want to share this photo taken by my friend Juliet Casabal. It shows the normal daily activities of those who are living around Taal Lake.

How I miss sights like these. I miss the smell of morning breeze and the crashing of cold waves on my feet. I grew up in San Nicolas, my Dad’s hometown, which is one of those towns surrounding Taal Lake. It is the home of the famous Maliputo and Tilapia.

Last May 28, the sight of dead and floating fish left the local fishing community dumbfounded.

(courtesy of ABS-CBN)

The community is blaming the pollution emitted by local piggeries around the lake because when the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources tested the water in the affected portions of the lake, they found high concentration of nitrite and ammonia which are toxic substances found in animal wastes. But the pollutant toxins was just one of the causes. Little did the local fishermen know that the fish kill was actually caused by the overstocking of illegal fish pens in the lake that led to the depletion of oxygen levels that then killed the fishes in the lake.

It’s odd, huh? The fishes, which normal flora is water, drowned. It is all because of some people’s carelessness and the concerned official’s laxity (as always). When are we going to learn? Don’t wait for the new wave of fish kill to afflict Taal Lake.